 Our
founding fathers' goal to build a canal linking the Chesapeake
Bay ports to the western territories of Ohio and beyond
was the equivalent of our generation's goal to land on
the moon. Like the space program, the vision for
the C&O Canal was to facilitate travel, communication,
and commerce between people and places. Unlike the
space program, it fell far short of that vision.
What remains of this commercial failure is a civil
engineering wonder: the Chesapeake and Ohio National
Historic Park. The
park consists of 74 canal locks, 11 stone aqueducts,
200 culverts, a half-mile-long tunnel cut through granite
rock, and seven dams spanning 184.5 miles from Georgetown
in Washington to Cumberland, Maryland. Although
it operated for nearly 100 years and was the main source
of coal, flour, and farm goods for the Capital, it eventually
succumbed to the economics of cheaper and faster water
and rail transportation. The most outstanding structure
in the park is the Monocacy Aqueduct, built to carry
the canal over the confluence of the Monocacy and Potomac
Rivers.
The seven-arch aqueduct was completed in 1833 and is
built of white and red quartzite, the same material used
to construct the Smithsonian Castle. It
spans 516 feet, with each arch at 54 feet. Approximately
300 workers were employed to haul materials and cut the
stone. One
hundred of the Irish immigrant stonecutters died during
a cholera epidemic and are buried in a Roman Catholic
churchyard in nearby Carrollton. Slaves also were employed, whose Maryland owners were paid
eight cents per day for their labor.
During the Civil War the canal was used to transport
war materials and troops along the border between Maryland,
Virginia, and points west. For
this reason the canal as well as the aqueducts were often
under attack by the Confederates.
There were many Confederate sympathizers among the canal
employees, including Thomas Walter, keeper of Lock 17. Walter
loved the South, but he loved the Monocacy Aqueduct more. When
he learned that Confederate General D. H. Hill had orders
to destroy it in order to halt boat traffic, Walter convinced
Hill that draining the canal would achieve the same end. Walter saved the Monocacy Aqueduct, only for it to be threatened
once again a few months later.
At the onset of the Antietam Campaign in September of
1862, General Lee sent for General John G. Walker. Lee
told him, "I wish you to return to the mouth of the Monocacy
and effectually destroy the aqueduct."This
was key to Lee's strategy to hold Harper's Ferry at the
Confederate rear as they proceeded into Maryland.
Walker's
men futilely attempted to drill holes and place gunpowder
charges. He later wrote to Lee, "it was apparent that, owing to the
insufficiency of our tools and the extraordinary solidity
and massiveness of the masonry, the work we had undertaken
was one of days instead of hours." To
have continued "would leave my small division ... in
a most exposed and dangerous position."Walker
abandoned the plan and the aqueduct was spared once more.
But what
the Confederates began Mother Nature nearly finished. The aqueduct was always subjected to weather, rain, and floods
that took a toll on the stonework. From
the Johnstown Flood in 1886, to Hurricane Agnes in 1972,
to seasonal temperature variations, the structure continues
to weaken.As
early as 1937 a Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS)
report stated, "The stones show signs of considerable
movement and the stability of the arches is much impaired.It
cannot be many years before the stones must fall and
the aqueduct, with the action of frost and floods, begin
rapidly to disappear."The
HABS report graded the condition of the Monocacy Aqueduct
as "Disintegrating."
Forty years
after this death sentence, the devastation of Hurricane
Agnes finally forced the government to act by installing
braces to stabilize the structure and reduce further
damage. In
1995, a tri-partnership of the National Park Service,
the C&O Canal Association, and the National Capital
Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers (NCS-ASCE)
stepped in to monitor the stability of the structure
and to develop a plan for restoration and repair. Recommendations
notwithstanding, there was simply no money to do the
work.
The turning
point came in 1998, with great media fanfare, when the
National Trust for Historic Preservation declared the
Monocacy Aqueduct an endangered historic site. This
encouraged Congress to appropriate $6.2 million to restore
it, and the project is now underway. They
won't use mules, slaves, or Irish stonecutters this time,
but it will take more money and ingenuity to restore
it than for our forefathers to build it.
Most of us
will never get to the moon, but we can and should visit
the Monocacy Aqueduct, just 42 miles upriver from Georgetown. We
can appreciate it as the engineering marvel it was when
it was built, as it still is considered today, and as
it will be when it is restored and preserved for the
future.
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Learning Links
The C&O
Canal Association protects, preserves and
promotes the assets of the C&O Canal Historic Park.
Visit
the HABS/HAER website
documenting our nation's treasured historic
structures.
Visit McMullen & Associates,
Inc. for the latest efforts to restore the
Monocacy Aqueduct.
Visit
the Cornell
University Library to access the Official
Records of the War of the Rebellion on-line,
including D. H. Hill's official report of his attempt
to destroy the Monocacy Aqueduct . |
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